A Deep Dive With Doug Gruse, Chief Marketing Officer

Doug Gruse spends his days overseeing marketing strategy for Empire State University. As chief marketing officer, he works with his team of 17 to create meaningful campaigns that resonate with potential students.

But for Gruse, the job goes beyond enrollment numbers. At the core of his passion for marketing is the desire to make the field a more honest and creative one—a philosophy that guides each decision the team makes. For the last three years, he has worked to make the university’s image embody its mission, centering the authenticity and uniqueness that characterize SUNY Empire learners.

In Saratoga Springs, Gruse sits at his office desk, almost in line with the far corner of the room. Behind him, windows flank his left and right, and in the space between them, next to his head, hangs an abnormally large clock shaped like a wristwatch. Whether it tells the time or is purely decorative is unknown. Gruse sports square-shaped tortoiseshell glasses, a plaid stone-gray suit jacket over a charcoal-colored shirt, and a two-tone grey bowtie.

Can you tell me about your hometown?

Gruse: I moved a few times. I was born in Indiana, and when I was in grade school, we moved to Louisiana—that’s what I would consider home. I have lived in seven different states. I attended middle school, high school, and college in Louisiana, but I’ve been in New York for 18 years now, which is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere.

Do you mind if I ask why you moved around so much?

Gruse: Maybe I have wanderlust. When I was a kid, we moved because my dad moved with his company and had good opportunities in Louisiana. It was very “fish out of the water” for us, but it was also cool. After that, I wanted to see different things.

I ended up moving to New Jersey when I met my husband. He’s from New Jersey and we were dating long-distance. I said, “Why not?” He subsequently moved to Louisiana for me. After we went through a couple of hurricanes together, we decided to go somewhere else. His criteria were that it couldn’t be 100 degrees every day, there couldn’t be hurricanes, and there couldn’t be animals that can kill you. So, New York was a pretty good fit. I moved here for a job; we’ve been here ever since and love it.

What was your upbringing like?

Gruse: When I really think about the heart of my family, my mom was from Northern Michigan—a little resort town—and her family had a restaurant there. In my childhood, we would go every summer and spend most of it with my grandparents. A lot of that centered on the restaurant.

I was in the kitchen helping my grandfather—it was probably more annoying than helpful, but it was exciting for me. My grandmother was a nurse. She would go to work all day, and then come back and still do work at the restaurant. We’d have our family meals there. It was such a big part of our identity that it’s what I think about when it comes to family.

[A day after his interview, Gruse sends a photo of his great-grandparents, Fremont “Mont” Withers and his wife, Zelma—the founders of “Mont’s” restaurant—white-aproned and leaning against the establishment’s entrance. It was taken sometime in the 1930s, Gruse says.]

When I was in kindergarten, my dad was a news reporter. There was a local zoo that he had featured in some stories, and a tiger at the zoo had a litter of cubs that she had rejected. The zoo director took one of the cubs in, somebody else took in another, and my family fostered the third one for six months. I named her Ginger, which was my favorite character on Gilligan’s Island, because in my head there was a point where she wore a tiger-striped dress. Somehow, in kindergarten it just made sense. I had the best show-and-tell experience of any kid.

Ginger grew fast. She was big by the time we had to give her up. It was really sad. After the foster period, my mom was contemplating keeping her, maybe building a large enclosure, but my dad said no.

Out of curiosity, how different was it from caring for a cat or a dog?

Gruse: It was similar to a cat. I’ve had cats and dogs, and we had a pet dog at the time who did not love having a tiger in the house, especially as the tiger grew and would kind of prey on her.

There was special food we had to feed her. It came in a can and was called ZuPreem—it’s very strange that I even remember that. It was like wet cat food, though at first, we were bottle feeding her. It didn’t feel that abnormal. She was very affectionate. Who could ask for more in kindergarten, right?

What were some of your early interests?

Gruse: I was always reading and making art. Those were my big things. I’m the youngest of three, and my middle brother and I shared a bedroom—we’re only a year and a half apart in age—and he was very good at convincing me of the things I should want for Christmas, which were really things that he wanted.

For example, Star Wars was a big part of our childhood, and I liked it, but wasn’t into the toys. Yet, that became a huge part of my Christmas list every year. At the same time, I would get lots of books and art supplies, so I was all set.

Let’s fast forward to college. If I’m not mistaken, I think you went to school for journalism.

Gruse: I did. I was in the journalism school at Louisiana State University, and my focus was in advertising.

Did you work as a journalist at some point?

Gruse: I did. It’s funny. My dad was a newspaper editor, and I spent a lot of time with him in his office. I swore I would never work for a newspaper. Then when I moved to Philadelphia, a job opened up at a newspaper and I thought, OK, I guess I’ll do that for a while. I ended up working in newspapers for 16 years and in fact moved up here following a job in journalism.

What was your beat?

Gruse: I covered arts and entertainment and features, and then ultimately became the online editor because I saw technology was changing. I thought I needed to embrace that, and it was a good opportunity for me to learn. Throughout my career, I call myself a slasher—not in the sense of Freddy Krueger, but I’ve had a lot of different jobs. I’ve found that I’m a writer slash editor, slash designer, slash marketer. The industry has changed so much, and I’ve jumped around.There’s so many different things that I’ve had to be, and I like that. I think that actually fits my personality really well. I get bored.

The nice thing about journalism—and I assume advertising, too—is that every day does look a little bit different.

Gruse: Well, especially marketing today. I mapped things out three years ago when I started at SUNY Empire, and we’ve evolved so much just by paying attention to what’s going on both in and outside of higher ed and thinking about how people are consuming information, how they’re connecting with culture, and then making sure that we’re meeting them where they are.

How do you think your journalism background informs your work as a marketer?

Gruse: Everything for me really is storytelling. Whether it’s doing visual art or working as a writer, I’ve always liked telling other people’s stories. And I think good marketing today focuses on that. It’s what our campaigns here at the university focus on. We’re telling our students’ stories and why we make sense for our students and letting them drive that narrative authentically. It’s so moving. It’s exciting. It never gets boring. I love talking to our students. I love hearing how we’ve changed their lives in ways that they never thought would be possible. That’s the great thing. I’ve always believed in higher ed. Knowing that higher education can be accessible to everyone at SUNY Empire and seeing that every day is very meaningful to me.

How do you define marketing and how is it an effective tool for the university?

Gruse: When I was in college, marketing was thought of as selling. It had this very manipulative, corporate feel. That was one thing I never loved about it. I always wanted something that was honest, and I think it’s evolved a lot because consumers are savvier. Marketers have had to realize they need to be authentic to optimize their messaging.

For me, marketing today is communication and matching people to the products and services that they would value. That’s the great thing about my job here—I feel good about the product that we’re marketing. It’s something I really believe in. We’re very honest in our messaging. We help the people who need us the most make a decision to get where they need to go for that next step in their lives.

SUNY Empire students vary widely in age. How do you tailor marketing campaigns to a multigenerational audience?

Gruse: I’ve done a lot of research on generations and how they differ. It’s important to think about the motivations of each one and how we connect with them through messaging, but also where they’re engaging. At the university, we have marketing tracks for undergrads that we call Gen. Z, and it’s basically 18- to 24-year-olds. Then we have what we call millennial-plus, and that focus is ages 25 to 45. Before, the university was marketing to 18- to 65-year-olds, and the messaging and delivery were exactly the same. So, we’ve really thought about what that 20-year-old needs to hear from us and what that 35-year-old needs to hear from us.

In the How You Do University campaign, we’re telling student stories, but we’re connecting students to similar students so they can see themselves and be inspired by people who are very similar to them. I think there’s a lot of meaning in that … we have students entering at different phases of life, so their stories are all different. How do we connect them? How do we tell that story in a way that feels individualized, but also cohesive? That’s where I think understanding the generations is very important.

What have previous experiences taught you about what makes a good team?

Gruse: When I think about what I value in a team, it’s seeing everyone’s perspective and bringing it all together. I’ve tried to build a team that’s diverse. I want them to really understand our students, which are themselves very diverse and eclectic. I want each of them to have an authentic voice.

We have a brand, and we have to adhere to brand standards, certainly, but I want to know how everyone on the team fits within that brand. I want us to always try to push boundaries a bit, and sometimes you have to rein it in. However, for creatives, it’s important that work doesn’t become routine and that they feel like there’s an opportunity to grow. I always try to encourage that.

Everyone has the thing that they’re good at. The way they see the world is unique. Even if there are just slight differences in people’s life paths, it reflects in perspective. It’s good to play to the strengths of each individual.

We have one last question for you, and it’s kind of a silly one. We’ve noticed that you’re always wearing a bow tie. Why?

Gruse: One of my Boomer bosses had a policy that proper men wore ties to work if they wanted to be respected. I thought it was ridiculous. I went and bought ties, and they drove me crazy because they’re long. I’d catch them in the car door or my desk drawer. I thought, why do I have this weird fabric just hanging here from my neck? It seemed so weird, especially for work. So I thought, I’m going to wear that tie that you’re demanding, but I’m going to wear a bow tie. Having come from the South, bow ties are sort of proper culture. So it was a little bit of sticking it to the man to wear one. And there’s a little bit of irony to it. I just think it’s kind of funny. So how do you be professional but still add a little humor? That’s why I like wearing bow ties. And now it’s become such a thing that if I’m not wearing one, people comment on it. It’s a little bit of snark as to why I wear a bow tie, but also now I really do love them.

[With a smile, he says he probably owns at least 60 bow ties. Later, after counting them, he reveals that he owns 96.]

What do you look for in a bow tie?

Gruse: So, it has to be one that I can tie myself; pretied bow ties are a no. I’m holding on to this principle. So that would be the first thing. And second, I like patterns. That’s important to me, and I want them to be playful in some way, ideally. And I really like to mix and match patterns in general. So, like a plaid jacket, a funky bow tie, a striped shirt.  I think it’s funny. You’ve got to have a quirk, right?